After the Sun sets on the Red Planet and temperatures fall below -62 degrees Celsius, part of its atmosphere begins to glow. It starts at an altitude of about 70 kilometers shortly after sunset. The spots, which are up to 1000 kilometers large and shine as brightly as the Northern Lights on Earth, then move at about 300 kilometers per hour across the night sky. Future astronauts, however, won’t be able to marvel at them, unfortunately, because the spectacle plays out only in the ultraviolet range, which is invisible to the human eye.
Researchers chose a green color for a false-color representation of the UV light intensity in images of the effect captured by the ESA probe, Mars Express. Thanks to data from NASA’s Maven probe, more is now known about the process and the source of the light.